Page 185 of Deceitful Vows

An intercom buzzing ends her eye roll halfway around.

“Mrs. Ivanov, I have two officers here to speak with you.”

My throat grows scratchy. Those were almost the exact words Nikita spoke when she told her dad there were two officers wanting to speak with him.

I can still remember the howl Mr. Hoffman released when they told him his wife had been brutally raped and murdered.

It haunts my dreams to this day, and it is the very reason I’ve kept my focus on settling Nikita’s panic more than my own.

Nikita makes it to the foyer of her grandparents’ apartment before a heartbreaking sob tears through her.

“If he’s… oh god.” When she folds in two, gripping her stomach as furiously as nausea shreds through mine, I race to her side.

“I should have never let him go. I should have made him keep his promise. I can’t lose him, Z. I haven’t even told him that I love him yet.”

“You won’t lose him. It’ll be okay. And he already knows, Keet. He saw it on your face every time you got jealous. Why do you think he loves it so much?”

Again, my thoughts stray to Andrik. I hate how he hurt me by throwing my sister in my face, but there are so many similarities to the way Maksim loves Nikita and how Andrik was with me before his attention waned that I can’t help but compare them.

Our time in the cabana…gosh. I’ve never felt more wanted. I fell in love with him on sight, and that afternoon cemented my feelings for him.

Cement is hard to crack.

Andrik has given it his best shot over the past few weeks, but his hits barely scratched the surface. I still love him enough that I can forgive him. He just needs to ask—and perhaps fall to his knees and beg.

I’m immersed in my wicked plan of revenge I am confident I will be given the chance to execute that it takes me longer than I care to admit to learn why the tension is so rife.

Nikita is standing across from a male and a female detective. The brunette seems somewhat polite, but the gray-haired man’s aura puts my nerves on edge.

“Do I need a warrant, Dr.Fernandez?” he spits into Nikita’s face.

“It is Dr. Ivanov,” Nikita barks back, her bite just as stern. “And yes, you do. My husband owns this building, so anything inside it is his possession.”

“Then I guess it’s lucky we’re not here for him, isn’t it?”

Recalling Maksim’s instructions for Nikita if she was ever bombarded like this, I shift on my feet to face Gigi before saying, “Call Raya.” When she nods and waddles off, I butt shoulders with Nikita. “What is this in regard to?”

“Are you her lawyer?”

“No.” My words are for the female detective, but my scold is for her male counterpart. “But I don’t need to be to make sure she isn’t railroaded by a chauvinistic asshole who thinks he’s tough because he has a gun.”

The brunette attempts to take charge. “We’re here in regard to your whereabouts between the hours of”—she checks her notepad—“two p.m. yesterday afternoon until five a.m. this morning.”

I continue with Maksim’s plan. “She was here the entire time.”

The male detective exposes part of his hand when he flashes an image of Nikita in the elevator of her workplace during the timeline his colleague mentioned.

“I arrived for my shift at…” Nikita breathes out slowly before murmuring, “I’m having difficulties remembering the exact time?—”

“Another lapse in memory? How convenient.”

Nikita retaliates to his snarky tone before I can. “I was drugged with a benzodiazepine that causes memory issues, so perhaps instead of wasting your time questioning me about my whereabouts, you should go search for the real criminals ruining this town.” I want to slap her back and say,Attagirl, when she snaps out, “And that person isnotmy husband.”

“Do you know who drugged you or what synthetic they used?” the brunette asks, her interests piqued.

Nikita shakes her head. “No. We took a sample with the hope it would give us answers, but the results aren’t back yet.”

She flips over the pages in her notepad before asking, “Do you have an approximate time you were drugged?”

---